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Vengeance is a dish best served in blood. Nithin Lukrose’s feature film directional debut ‘PAKA (River of Blood)’ is an Indian Malayalam feature film that captures the essence of a generational feud between two families caught in between a patriarchal couple, Anna (Vinitha Koshy) and Johnny (Basil Palouse), who wants to end the bloody cycle of vengeance. The film is currently screening at the 2021 Pingyao International Film Festival.
If you are fans of the Shakespearean play ‘Romeo and Juliet’, expect this film to play out its tragedies throughout the plot of the film. The scenes of red wedding before the red wedding have already been happening for generations between Anna and Johnny’s families the moment when Johnny’s criminal uncle, Kocheppu (Jose Kizhakkan) has been released from prison.
What is the significance of Johnny’s uncle Kocheppu in the story? For starters, Kocheppu is a generation older than Johnny. He is heavily rooted in the key history of violence between the two families where his murderous bloodshed and his accomplices have done to the other family members and dumping them by the local rivers of rural Kerala.
The killings dated far back to even Johnny’s grandparents, to the point where the anger and hostility has broiled over the traditional idea of killing each other as their idea of redemption to their families. Given the fact that this has been going on for generations, rather than reflecting and remembering the history of those have fallen, their answer is to seek revenge in return.
Kocheppu was recognizable by locals for these generational sins. There was a scene where a local vendor spots and makes eye contact with Kocheppu, and Kocheppu is aware of the judgmental look he was given. When he approaches the vendor, a subtle reference from a WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) episode is playing in the background. Fans of WWE may remember one storyline where the Undertaker is confronted by his debuting brother Kane, who returns from the grave in a dark reincarnation of himself with a mask to cover the burns from his face. Kocheppu appears to be referred to as Kane, and the vendor felt he saw a darker reincarnation of him.
Kocheppu, having been in prison for a decade, was returning and is trying to convince others that he changed for the better. However, even though he can change himself, he cannot change the perceptions of the people knowing what he did in the past and has not been forgiven for his sins. When the word gets out to Anna’s family finding out Kocheppu has been released, the generational cycle repeats itself with revenge to kill Kocheppu.
Unfortunately, Johnny gets caught within this vengeance when he discovers Kocheppu has been murdered. Johnny’s character was considered to be more of a pacifist and peaceful who tries to stay out of trouble. But being blood-related to his uncle, he is now roped into the generational killings after the discovery of his uncle’s murder. As mentioned earlier, there was supposed to be a wedding between Johnny and Anna, but their two opposing families could not put their bloody issues aside, and now Johnny’s life path seems to be turning into Kocheppa’s path as he learns more of the vengeance that is happening between the families. In other words, he became someone who he did not want to become, and the generational cycle of killings is reborn.
There were scenes of portraits hung in Johnny’s home showing the victims who were murdered in the generational killings. The scene returns another time showing the additional portraits added to emphasize the idea that this long sad tradition of war has not ended. The bloodshed of violence is never really shown on screen, but the background audio of the machete and killings are heard loud and clear, followed by a body bag dumped into the river to show the aftermath.
The film is a complete tragedy for most of the plot, though there were light conversational moments shown that they were just any ordinary people living their normal lives and just having fun throughout their day. But these people are entangled to the old fabled tale that their time on earth is short as they will always be tied to the generational vengeance, even though they had no part of the involvement but are guilty by association. It was only a matter of time when the killings come closer to impacting their life to change their demeanor forever.